Communication networks, such as computing networks, routinely use switches, routers, and other nodes to transport information across the networks. Each of these nodes typically receives information in a network and identifies a destination for the information. Each of these nodes then typically forwards the information, either directly to the destination or indirectly to the destination through one or more other nodes.
Some types of networks do not scale very well compared to other types of networks. For example, it is often difficult to scale FAULT TOLERANT ETHERNET (FTE) networks to include a large number of nodes. As a particular example, FTE networks may have an implementation limit of 512 nodes in theory and approximately 200 or 300 nodes in practice. This may represent an inadequate number of nodes to provide desired functionality or coverage in a network.